. ♪ gangnam style >> reporter: just as south korean rapper psy and his song "gangnam style" approached 1 billion youtube views, the research on his america-bashing past ended the good times. ♪ gangnam style >> reporter: no such problems for carly rae jepsen whose only crime was planting a song into the personal hard drive of every american for all eternity. ♪ but here's my number ♪ so call me maybe >> reporter: let's see, what else? oh, nasa dropped a rover on mars. >> touchdown confirmed. >> reporter: a dude broke the sound barrier while sky-diving from the edge of outer space. mark zuckerberg took his little dorm room project public. while another harvard man took over the nba. and still another stunned the country by upholding the president's health care law from the big chair on the united states supreme court. it was enough to make one more harvard guy sing. ♪ i'm so in love with you >> reporter: not quite as strong a year for the harvard of the pacific northwest. reed college, represented here on "wheel of fortune." >> fan, fan, wand! oh! >> reporter: 2012 was a tantalizi